At halftime, Geneva’s Lauren Slagle triumphantly walked into the locker room.
Raising her arms, the Grand Valley State-bound senior forward showed off the scrapes and cuts that earned her 10 rebounds in the first half Thursday night.
“That’s the game of basketball, Slagle said. “You’re going to get cuts. You’re going to get scratches. You just have to push through it. You have to just block everything out.
“I was like, ‘Look at my arms. I’m not this red normally.'”
Slagle had St. Charles North seeing red. Her effort on the boards would be a huge part of a 54-46 DuKane victory that put the Vikings in command of the conference race.
In the end, Slagle led Geneva (20-3, 10-0) with 16 points and 14 rebounds.
“I told her at halftime she was just tough,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. “She was flexing and her arms were scraped up. She’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m earning it.’
“She just played a really tough, solid game for us.”
Slagle also had a big impact offensively, generally by driving to the basket down the baseline and drawing contact.
That got Katrina Stack, St. Charles North’s top defender in the post, into early foul trouble. It limited her minutes before she eventually fouled out.
Slagle, who went 5-for-6 from the line, said that was a big part of her offseason development.
“That’s one thing I worked on, drawing contact,” Slagle said. “My (AAU) coach at M-14 worked on that a lot with me — veering into contact to get the foul and get the and-one.”
Even so, St. Charles North (20-5, 9-2) led the entire first quarter, taking a 15-14 lead at the break.
Reagan Sipla, who missed the first game between the teams, scored eight of her game-high 18 points in the opening eight minutes.
“She came out ready to play,” North Stars coach Mike Tomczak said. “Reagan provided a huge lift.”
The Vikings heated up from 3-point range to take the lead.
Cassidy Arni, Rilee Hasegawa and Slagle each hit threes in the third quarter. Slagle scored the final nine points in the half to give Geneva a 31-26 lead.
“She’s terrific,” Tomczak said of Slagle. “She takes up space. She hit a three. Good for her. We need to do a better job closing out and not giving her that baseline.
“That really hurt us a couple times. That forced Stack to rotate over and that got her in foul trouble early. She’s such an anchor for our defense. When she sits for that long, we’re not as good as we can be.”
The North Stars hung around in the third, but every time they got close, Geneva had an answer. And the biggest shot came from Arni.
St. Charles North had a quick 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 41-39, but Arni picked up a loose ball on the other end and drilled a 3-pointer. Slagle followed with two free throws.
The closest the North Stars, who also received 16 points from Alyssa Hughes, got the rest of the way was six points.
St. Charles North lost by 21 the first time the teams played, so Tomczak was happy with Thursday’s effort.
“That was four quarters of going toe-to-toe with, for my money, the best team in the state,” Tomczak said. “Our girls know now they can play with anybody. If they didn’t know before, they know now.”
Arni and Hasegawa scored 13 points for Geneva. Leah Palmer added 12.
With the regular season drawing to a close soon, Slagle is pleased with where the Vikings stand.
“I feel really happy with this team right now,” Slagle said. “I hope that we go far. The way that we played (Thursday), we have a good shot.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.